Staph study focuses
on isle groupsAsians, Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders
are needed for the infection research
State and federal health officials are asking Hawaiian, Asian and Pacific island residents to help them learn why antibiotic-resistant staph infections are increasing in those groups.
"It's an escalating battle with this particular organism (Staphylococcus aureus)," said Dr. Alan Tice, consultant in infectious diseases at the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine and coordinator of a Skin Infection Project.
"This is a smart organism," he said. "It got smart fast. It became resistant to penicillin and we got new antibiotics. They helped awhile, then it become resistant to those. It's a primary human pathogen, a smart creature."
Federal and state infectious disease specialists want to talk to any Hawaiian, Asian or Pacific island resident who had a skin infection serious enough to require antibiotic therapy or drainage within the past year, he said.
Volunteers are asked to call Mary Kim at 341-4890 to arrange an hour-long interview.
They will receive $50 for time and travel expenses to participate in the study, sponsored by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the state Department of Health.
Tice said the Health Department held a meeting last week for infectious disease and control people.
"It is taking a leadership role to try to get to the bottom of why and how these people get these infections."
He said concerns are increasing internationally and nationally about antibiotic resistance to staph infections. It is a particular problem in Hawaii, with a growing number of people infected in the past few years with resistant Staphylococcus aureus strains, he said.
Five cases were reported last week involving three Kaneohe Marines and two family members, who were treated by Navy medical specialists for lesions on their bodies.
Pacific Island, Hawaiian and Asian people may be affected more than other ethnic groups, Tice said.
"It's enough of a problem in Samoa that Australians and Americans recognize something is different in the Pacific."
It is difficult to treat the skin infections because the usual antibiotic pills no longer work, Tice said. Patients have to get intravenous antibiotics or expensive antibiotic pills costing $500 to $1,000 a week, he said.
Studies at Tripler Army Medical Center have shown 2 to 3 percent of infected people are not seriously ill and can be treated as outpatients, Tice said. However, some infections can cause pneumonia. "It can be devastating, even fatal."
Hawaii health leaders and infectious-disease specialists alerted doctors and health-care administrators last fall to the problems of multiple, drug-resistant bacteria.
They said the increase of penicillin-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteria was the greatest concern because it can cause pneumonia, meningitis and other invasive infections. Resistant strains of Staph aureus also were reported increasing through communities.
Tice said specialists are not quite sure how the bacteria spread, but "clearly, it spreads from one person to another. ... It lives in people, particularly in noses and skin," he said, advising people to wash their hands often to prevent infection.
"We worry about environmental things, doorknobs to beaches. ... It's around largely because of people," he said.
"We want to try to figure out more about why and how it gets loose, why it spreads and what we can do to stop it."
Tice pointed to the recent SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) outbreak, where there were no antibiotics to contain the virus.
He said it was a "wonderful example of how to get rid of a disease with infection control."
